News
House Rennovations with an 11 month old baby
Jul
Hi mummies,
Some quick facts about me:
- married
- 29 years old
- English but lives in Turkey
- mummy of a 11 month old baby girl
So recently we have began doing up the house after realising the layout of our living room and kitchen just isn’t practical for kids who need their space to crawl/walk/run about.
Currently our living room and kitchen are both in one room, and it is SMALL. It was just about manageable when it was just me and my husband but the kitchen was always difficult, with hardly any storage and countertop space.
After both of us working hard and saving up some money we decided to use the 3rd upstairs bedroom as a seperate kitchen and knock out the one in the living room. You’d think it would be fairly straight forward, but let me tell you, in Turkey, IT IS NOT.
We have had about 6 different workmen coming in to do different parts, someone to do the laminate, someone to do the tiling, someone to do the plumbing, someone to do the plastering and painting, someone to trim the front metal door to level so it doesnt scrape along the new flooring, electrician to insert new sockets and someone to build and fit the kitchen.
In Turkey even if you pay with cash in hand, getting people to come and do the work on time is exhausting. Fethiye is quite a smallish city so most people are always busy and you will be fobbed off with dates when things will be ready on a weekly basis.
It has been very stressful with rubble, dust and crap everywhere with a crawling baby who has just been confined to a tiny space in the living room. It’s been over two months now that the house has been turned upside down with only the plumbing and laminate fitted.
All of this has caused so many arguements with me and my husband as he works approx 15 hours a day 6 days a week so getting him to find the time to help get this all done is impossible. I argue with him for coming home so late, for not helping out with the baby and for not making our home his priority. His arguement back is that he is trying to build a future for our family with his new business. I get that I have to support him but it’s also important that there is balance too. I just hope this sacrafice will be worth it one day and that our daughter will have a secure future.
Living in Turkey is difficult, unfortunately I am not as independent as I would like to be or as I would be in the UK due to language barriers and the fact that you get charged different prices to a native. I would love to be able to organise all of this without relying on my husband but If i was to do it I would pay double the price and that’s just not what we can afford, it’s been such a struggle to gather the money for this as it is.
My advice to mamas is PLEASE DO YOUR HOUSE RENNOVATIONS BEFORE YOUR BABY ARRIVES. It has been so stressful getting my baby girl down for naps when there’s drilling going on and not to mention the crap and mess that is left everywhere.
Once all of this is done I will post again with some before and after photos!
oh it can be tough doing this with a baby for sure, I think concentrate on doing one room at a time so you always have one room baby safe at least! Good luck I hope it all goes well
*** original poster update ***
Hi guys, well 3/4 months later I can say it’s now finally FINISHED! Oh boy was it stressful, did the husband and I almost kill each other… yes!!!
It’s a shame to be honest that this time wasn’t enjoyable, instead it was just a chore that came with a lot of chaos, distruction and stress. The builders kept letting us down on when they were going to turn up, which would then delay other workers as it was a dominio effect on all of the tasks that needed to be done.
This has put more stress on our marriage than having a baby, no lie! However, it’s done now and we can finally rebuild (no pun intended) as a family and enjoy what we have worked so hard for. It’s really beautiful and I am so pleased with the result. It definitely was worth it all in the end.
The blood, swear and tears (all literally, husband cut his foot open when taking off the old kitchen tiles)
My advice… probably best getting this kinda major work done to your house BEFORE baby comes, but hey that’s life you can’t plan everything!